Florence, a wet and unwanted visitor, besieges Carolinas

Florence is testing the faith of people in the Bible Belt town of Lumberton, South Carolina, where people had to be rescued from rooftops after flooding caused by Hurricane Matthew two years ago.

He said there has been about two to four inches of rain thus far with the slow-moving storm and another 12 to 16 inches is expected in the next couple of days. A comment read, "Reporters are lighter than regular people". Floyd produced 24 inches of rain in some parts of the state, while Florence has already dumped about 30 inches in areas around Swansboro.

They say it will make it easier to respond to risky situations, should they develop.

The effects of Florence won't be fading anytime soon, either, as current forecasts have upwards of 15-to-20 additional inches of rain possible for areas of North and SC will Florence's remnants will linger for the next 48 to 72 hours.

About 100 people still need to be rescued in New Bern, North Carolina, where some 4200 homes have been damaged, the mayor told CNN.

There were 974,000 homes in the Carolinas without power on Saturday morning.

In Jacksonville, North Carolina, next to Camp Lejeune, firefighters and police fought wind and rain as they went door to door to pull more than 60 people out of the Triangle Motor Inn after the structure began to crumble and the roof started to collapse.

Onslow county, located about 50 miles to the northeast of Wilmington, has been hit particularly hard. Forecasters predicted severe flooding for parts of southeastern North Carolina and northeastern SC starting Sunday.

Dorchester is a mandatory evacuation zone, but a spokesperson for South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster says the governor felt it was safer to keep the inmates in the prisons rather than move them.

"The flooding (along the river) could come between midnight and 5 a.m.", he said.

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Though downgraded to a tropical storm, the slow-moving Florence will continue to threaten more death and destruction as it crawls over the Carolinas and then moves inland and north over the coming days.

That's the new North Carolina record for most rainfall from a single tropical system.

"We are expecting several more days of rain, and our focus now is getting people away from immediate danger", North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said as the relenting storm puttered slowly west near the SC border.

New Bern spokeswoman Colleen Roberts said 455 people in all were rescued in the town of 30,000 residents without any serious injuries or deaths.

Despite its weakened status to a tropical storm, Florence has deluged parts of the North Carolina coastline with torrential and historic amounts of rain.

At 8 a.m. EDT, the Miami-based hurricane center said rainfall will continue to produce catastrophic flash flooding and prolonged significant river flooding. On Saturday, the storm was crawling westward at about 2 miles per hour, unleashing havoc as it went.

As rivers swelled toward record levels, state regulators and environmental groups were monitoring the threat from enormous hog and poultry farms located in low-lying, flood-prone areas.

In North Carolina, a mother and infant died when a tree fell on their house, a 78-year-old man was electrocuted while plugging in a generator in the rain, and a 77-year-old man died after being blown to the ground while checking on his hunting dogs. Local media said she suffered a heart attack.

The White House said President Donald Trump approved making federal funding available in some affected counties.

The heaviest of the rain should gradually taper off in southeast North Carolina throughout Sunday.

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